Crews extinguish week-long grain bin fire in Olmsted County

DOVER, Minn. (KTTC) — A fire that smoldered in a grain bin in Dover along County Rd. 142 for more than a week was extinguished on Monday, Nov. 10, by the Dover and Eyota Volunteer Fire Departments. However, it has left an Olmsted County farmer with significant losses during harvest season.

Owner Brian LaBare discovered smoke coming from his grain dryer on Monday, Nov. 3, less than a day after finishing harvest on his field.

“We finished this field a week ago Sunday,” LaBare said. “Came back Monday morning, seen smoke coming out of the top. I tried turning the augers on and everything was froze up.”

LaBare suspected a faulty gearbox of the bin’s auger sparked the fire. The bins had recently passed inspection after being installed this spring.

“We actually just built, these are used bins. We had them put in this spring from a company in Iowa,” he said.

Crews from Dover and Eyota volunteer fire departments poured roughly 80,000 gallons of water on the fire over the course of a week. Eyota Fire Training Chief Ryan Pike said water alone wasn’t enough to reach the smoldering core.

“The seat of the fire being as low as it was, it took an excavator to actually finally suppress the fire,” Pike said.

John Shea of Shea Construction provided an excavator to help extinguish the burning corn.

LaBare lost his grain dryer and about 12,000 bushels of corn in the fire. He said he’s waiting for a fire marshal investigation and will work with insurance on next steps.

Although his corn is totaled as a loss, it’s not all going to waste. LaBare is offering the burnt corn for free to farmers in the area for animal feed.

The official cause of the fire remains under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office.

The Dover Fire Department advised farmers to conduct periodic checks on mechanical parts and bearings of grain bins to help avoid similar incidents.

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